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Maritime<br />
Successful in Europe, a Naples-based company feels not fairly treated at home<br />
Grimaldi calls for equal market<br />
Photo: Nicola Capuzzo<br />
Eurostar Barcelona (Grimaldi Ferries) in Barcelona<br />
With an order book of new buildings worth EUR 1.7 billion, Grimaldi<br />
Group Naples is aiming at becoming the owner of the largest<br />
ro-ro multipurpose and car carrier fleet not only in the Mediterranean<br />
Sea, but in the world.<br />
Although Finnlines, controlled<br />
by Grimaldi since 2007, has a<br />
strong position on the <strong>Baltic</strong><br />
Sea, too.<br />
Grimaldi Group actually<br />
manages a fleet made up of 120<br />
ships and their orderbook includes 24 new buildings.<br />
Six ro-pax at Fincantieri, two new multipurpose<br />
vessels of a series of eight at the Uljanik<br />
yards in Pula (Croatia), four more ro-pax orders<br />
in China and another five multipurpose ships still<br />
to be built in Korea. The total investment volume<br />
is approximately EUR 1.7 billion.<br />
Cruise Roma, the last new ro-pax vessel,<br />
built by Fincantieri at Castellammare di Stabia<br />
shipyards, entered into service on the Civitavecchia-Barcelona<br />
route in April. “The new cruise<br />
ferry enables us to double our cargo capacity<br />
on this primary Italy-Spain line and replace<br />
the past Eurostar Roma (built in 1995) recently<br />
sold to Unity Line for an interesting price,” says<br />
Emanuele Grimaldi, CEO of the Group.<br />
It seems the operation provided an excellent<br />
capital gain for the seller, around EUR 30m<br />
or maybe even EUR 40m. There are some speculations,<br />
not confirmed yet, that her sister ship,<br />
Eurostar Barcelona, is the subject of sales negotiations,<br />
too. She will probably be substituted<br />
by a new ro-pax vessel called Cruise Barcelona,<br />
20 | <strong>Baltic</strong> <strong>Transport</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> | 3/<strong>2008</strong><br />
which is to be delivered next September. Like<br />
Cruise Rome, she’ll be 225 m long, 30.4 m wide,<br />
with 28 knots speed, will be able to carry 2,300<br />
passengers and have a garage with 3,050 linear<br />
metres of capacity.<br />
New line? We shall see<br />
Yet Grimaldi Group also operates in the<br />
East Mediterranean and in Northern Europe<br />
through its owned companies in Greece (i.e.,<br />
Minoan Lines), Finland (Finnlines) and, obviously,<br />
referring to ACL – Atlantic Container<br />
Line, purchased eight years ago.<br />
Some rumours have been heard that<br />
Grimaldi is planning to introduce a new<br />
line from Greece to Monfalcone (Italy).<br />
Emanuele Grimaldi does not wish not to<br />
comment on this. “We have been a 30.7%<br />
shareholder in Minoan Lines for a few<br />
months, therefore, we prefer not to speak<br />
about strategies until we will have our men<br />
in the management board. The shipping<br />
line is working well and we feel completely<br />
in tune with the management,” admits<br />
Grimaldi. “We could go on buying shares in<br />
the market to a 33% capital, after that we’ll<br />
have to launch a tender offer in order to<br />
gain a majority stake.”<br />
Currently, Grimaldi Group calls at the<br />
port of Monfalcone with car carrier lines and<br />
it seems probable that they are planning a new<br />
passenger service to Greece, an alternative to<br />
the already existing one from Venice.<br />
As for their future plans, the Italian manager<br />
admitted that he already knows where to<br />
focus their next efforts in the Mediterranean<br />
Sea but all his ideas need to be previously discussed<br />
with the board.<br />
After Cruise Roma and Cruise Barcelona,<br />
Fincantieri will go on building and then delivering<br />
four more ships of the same class to<br />
operate on the Adriatic Sea or in Greece. They<br />
could substitute the three units actually linking<br />
Ancona with Igoumenitsa and Patrasso. The<br />
ro-pax built by Fincantieri granted the Naples<br />
group high economies of scale and hence a<br />
way to maximise profit and to propose cheaper<br />
ticket prices to its customers. For the third consignment<br />
of Cruise Roma class sister ships, to<br />
be delivered in 2010, market rumours report of<br />
a possible deployment on the Greek domestic<br />
market between the Piraeus and Iraklion ports<br />
(one million potential passengers). One important<br />
clue confirmed that Minoan Lines’ managers<br />
seems that they really appreciate Cruise Roma’s<br />
capacity and its technical characteristics.<br />
Finnlines: from charterer to shipowner<br />
Grimaldi also controls 51% of the Finnish<br />
ferry company Finnlines. After a slow but<br />
gradual purchase of shares, which came to an<br />
end in March 2007, the company started its
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